No One Is Beyond God’s Reach – Never Give Up!
Recently a superbly kept secret was aired through a series of interviews and a new book. The secret? Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a leading Hamas founder, a group dedicated to the eradication of Israel, came to faith in Jesus.
This man’s story teaches us many lessons and gives us a clear picture of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-45, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Prayer, the Word of God and trust in the Spirit of God can reach anyone anywhere at any time, if only we will love on and pray for them.
In 1996, Yousef became a spy for Israel and served for over a decade as Shin Bet’s (Israel’s secret service) most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, “earning himself the nickname ‘the Green Prince’ – using the color of the Islamist group’s flag, and ‘prince’ because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement’s founders.”
As a spy for Israel, Yousef was responsible for “helping the Israelis stop scores of terrorist attacks and arrest scores of terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian jihadist groups,” though he drew the line when they wanted to take out his own father. To prevent this from happening he took active steps to insure his father kept on breathing.
As a boy, Yousef grew up hating Jews and came from one of the most religious Islamic families in the Middle East. And when Saddam Hussein sent rockets heading towards Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, Yousef cheered. Yousef believed what Hamas taught regarding Israel, “Israel will be established and will stay established until Islam shall nullify it, as it nullified what was before it.” In other words, Israel can exist, but it will one day be overrun by Islam and run by Islamic rule; therefore, he was willing to help Hamas achieve it’s stated goal by whatever means possible.
Yet it was what happened in 1996 that put him on his spiritual journey to Jesus. At the age of 18, Yousef was put into an Israeli prison for buying and storing automatic weapons. It was while in prison that two things happened to him that would provide the fire he needed to examine his own life’s direction.
The first incident took place when he saw Muslims torturing Muslims. “I had never heard a human being scream like that guy did. What could he have done to deserve that?” He personally saw fellow Hamas members torturing their own people. He came to the conclusion that this was not the movement he wanted to spend his life on. If they were to stop the Jews, why were they hurting and killing fellow Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims? It didn’t make sense.
With that incident in the back of his mind, he was approached by Shin Bet agents to see whether he would work for them in order to help save lives. This is after seeing and hearing what he saw, he accepted their offer of help and in 1997 was released from prison to pursue his new mission – saving lives.
This new found mission led him one day to walk past the northern most gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Damascus Gate. It was here that he came into contact with the Word of God as someone had the courage to invite him to a Bible study! Though anyone can come and go through the Damascus Gate, to be there and to ask someone to a Bible study takes tremendous courage as both Muslims and Jews don’t want to hear the gospel. Both groups want nothing to do with Christians. In fact, to become a believer in Jesus from those two faiths can cost one their family, let alone their life (i.e. Ami Ortiz – for his story go to www.amiortiz.com). Yet it was at this Bible study that he received a copy of the New Testament that would change the total direction of his life forever.
“I began at the beginning [in the Gospel According to Matthew], and when I got to the Sermon on the Mount, I thought, wow, this guy Jesus is really impressive! Everything He says is beautiful! I couldn’t put the book down. Every verse seemed to touch a deep wound in my life. It was a very simple message, but somehow it had the power to heal my soul and give me hope. Then I read this: ‘You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5:43-45)….I was thunderstruck by these words. Never before had I heard anything like this, but I knew that this was the message I had been searching for all my life.
“For years I had struggled to know who my enemy was, and I had looked for enemies outside of Islam and Palestine. But I suddenly realized that the Israelis were not my enemies. Neither was Hamas nor my uncle Ibrahim [one of the torturers in prison] nor the kid who beat me with the butt of his M16….I understood that enemies were not defined by nationality, religion, or color. I understood that we all share the same common enemies: greed, pride, and all the bad ideas and the darkness of the devil that live inside us….Five years earlier, I would have read the words of Jesus and thought, ‘What an idiot!’ and thrown the Bible away….But now, everything Jesus said on the pages of this book made perfect sense to me. Overwhelmed, I started to cry.”
In 2005, after a long spiritual journey, Yousef renounced Islam, received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord, and was baptized in the Mediterranean Sea. He now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion as his life was in grave danger if he stayed.
“So many people owe him their life to Yousef and don’t even know it,” said Yousef’s Shin Bet handler, named in his book as Captain Loai. “People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it. The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money. He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours – the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts.”
Yosef’s story goes to the power of the Word of God, the power of prayer and the power of faith. It took trusting in the Lord to invite him to the Bible Study. It took prayer by those at that study to help open Yosef’s eyes to the truths that he was reading. And it took the Word God through the Spirit of God to penetrate to the deepest portion of Yosef’s life and begin to satisfy his thirst.
Yousef’s story teaches us that though we may have people in our lives – at work, at home, and in our neighborhoods – who seem to get under our skin or even try to do us harm, no one, not even our perceived or real enemies is beyond the saving grace of Jesus. It is our privilege as believers in Jesus to join the battle for souls. Therefore, never stop praying for those you love and for those you don’t like to come to faith in Jesus. Overcome your fear of inviting someone to study the Word, to MiniChurch or to our services. What’s the worst they can do to you? Tell you no? The risks are certainly not what our brothers and sisters face in the Middle East on a daily basis. Keep on trusting the Word of God as it is the power to save a life and change a life – including yours! It is that powerful.
Pastor Chris
Sources for this article.
- http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/exclusive-how-did-the-son-of-hamas-come-to-christ-part-one/
- Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2010.
- http://www.forzion.com/full-article.php?news=8589
